Florian Lipowitz was in a somewhat subdued mood ahead of the Vuelta - although the 23-year-old former biathlete had quite a few successes to show for this year, his second as a professional cyclist with the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team. At the Tour de Romandie, he was able to keep up with the world's best in the mountains and achieved a sensational third place overall. "That was also quite a surprise for me and of course gave me a lot of self-confidence," he says looking back on this first big performance, after he was reflexively hyped up by some media as currently Germany's greatest tour talent. He rode to the start of the Giro d'Italia with a broad chest and great ambitions. "It was really cool on the second stage, of course," he said, categorising his phenomenal mountain assistance for captain Daniel Felipe Martinez. Lipowitz's mountain show in Oropa triggered a small explosion of media enquiries from Germany, to which the team reacted by isolating the youngster as much as possible. No interviews on the bus or in the mixed zone, only telephone exchanges at best.
Setback for Florian Lipowitz at the Giro d'Italia
However, Lipowitz did not stay long at the Giro d'Italia. The first setback came when he had to pull out due to illness. "That really gets you down when you know you're in top form but have to leave so early. It wasn't easy," he admits. He was also plagued by colds afterwards. He actually wanted to skip the German Championships because of this. "That's why it was a bit of a surprise to me that I did so well at the DM," he summarises. He was runner-up virtually from the sick camp, beaten in a breakaway group only by the other great German tour talent Marco Brenner.
"Overall, the season has been rather bumpy so far because I've unfortunately been ill a lot," he says, summarising his second professional year so far. The health setbacks also left their mark on his mood. "That wasn't easy. I then needed a bit of distance from cycling and did other things," he says. His family in particular gave him support. However, his mood didn't sink so low that he would have put his racing bike in the corner out of sheer frustration and strapped on his biathlon rifle again. "No, I don't miss skiing in the summer," he says with a laugh.
How Florian Lipowitz got into cycling
The young man from Laichingen in the Swabian Alb has ticked off his winter sports career, but he continues to pursue his path in cycling, even though he started out on a rehab programme. "I had an inflammation in my knee and had to take a break for almost a whole year," Lipowitz recalls. "Cycling was the first thing I could do." However, cycling has always played a big role in his family, especially through his father. "We rode a few cycling marathons, and that's how I got involved in the cycling scene," he recalls. One of his favourite experiences is still the week he spent cycling through the French Alps from Geneva to Nice with his family. "That was a highlight. The seven days we travelled there will stay with you forever," he says.
Helpers with ambitions
Now, however, he is focussing more on the peaks in northern Spain, such as Cuitu Negru, Picon Blanco and Lagos de Covadonga. There he sees himself primarily as a mountain helper, but is also hoping for a licence to break away. "That would be ideal if there was the opportunity to go on a stage or to say that I'd like this stage and that stage and I could go for a result myself. But of course that also depends on the overall situation, who the leader is. And once we're in the jersey, that will be over relatively quickly," he says, realistically assessing his options, even if his victory in the four-day Tour of Sibiu in Romania at the beginning of July has given him additional self-confidence.
He himself feels like a tour rider. "I realise that I tend to get better at the end of tours," he says. However, the longest tour he has ever completed lasted nine days, he admits. And that's another reason why he wants to ride the Vuelta. "I'm excited to see how my body reacts to the three weeks," he says. And the whole of cycling Germany is curious with him.
